For the briefest moment, it didn’t feel real. The sun on his face, the wind blowing his hair, the scent of grass; the irrational thought that this was some dream or construct of the Weaver gripped him tight.

  He engaged his spatial senses, looking for an anchor—physical or magical.

  The familiar location helped ground him; this was Topeka, the very same field they’d gathered on together right before he had…

  He realized how angry the others must be. He’d stolen the Metaphysical Singularity, denying his mother the power that all S-rankers strived for. What had they imagined when he’d shoved it into his chest and disappeared?

  Before he could contemplate the fallout of his decision, System notifications rolled across his vision.

  New Quest Given: [Complete a Master-grade Skill Set]

  Catalog or create a complete set of Master-grade Skills from any Aspect.

  Reward: B-rank

  Elemental Master-grade Skills identified…

  Master of Light

  Master of Telekinesis

  Set progress: [2 of 5]

  Metaphysical Master-grade Skills identified…

  Master of Skill Analysis

  Set Progress: [1 of 5]

  As the new Quest information filtered in, his eyes widened more and more as he read.

  Master-grade Skills…

  And he already possessed two from the Elemental Aspect and one from the Metaphysical Aspect. Depending on which route he decided to focus on, he was well on his way to B-rank.

  The realization hit him then…he was a C-ranker. There hadn’t been time to process the change before, but now that he reached for his aura, it was impossible to miss the step up in power. It felt dense, thick whereas it had felt watered down before. It reminded him more of the A-rankers of his grandfather’s court—his father and the revenants that he’d grown up around. It wasn’t quite on that level, but he could feel the quality of his aura strengthening.

  More than that, he felt its depth, too. It was like going from a kiddy pool to a vast lake.

  Stretching his aura wide, he could feel his senses expanding, reaching past the handful of miles that had been his limit, into the dozens of miles—perhaps even hundreds.

  S-ranking Travelers could cross the globe in a single portal. Silver had shown he could reach the moon using the Physical Singularity. What were his limits? A hundred miles? Two?

  As eager as he was to find out, his new Class Skills practically screamed at him for his attention.

  Skill Synthesis Identification — C (Upgradeable)

  Activate to identify compatible Skill combinations in user’s catalog or aura perception.

  Note: Class Skills upgrade as the user ranks up.

  Loan Skill (C — Upgradeable)

  Target an individual and activate to temporarily loan one of the user’s Affixed Skills. Selected Skill will be downranked if target’s aura is not at the Skill’s rank. Selected Skill can be upranked if target’s aura is at an appropriate rank and compatible with the loaned Skill.

  Length of loan is dependent on both target and loaned Skill’s rank. User cannot loan Class Skills. User cannot activate loaned Skills while the loan is in effect.

  Note: This is an upgradeable Skill. As caster’s rank increases, so will this Skill.

  Master of Skill Analysis — C (Upgradeable)

  Activate to attempt identification of all active powers in a radius. Radius and success of identification are dependent on aura perception and strength.

  Cataloging no longer requires genetic data.

  Note: This is an upgradeable Skill. As users rank, understanding, and aura control increase, so can this Skill.

  He didn’t know where to start! The duo of Skill Synthesis Identification and Master of Skill Analysis were incredible. Not only would he be able to grow his catalog exponentially, but he didn’t require genetic data anymore. Anyone and everyone within range using an active Skill was fair game. In conjunction with his Aura Snapshot, he could simply activate Master of Skill Analysis, take an Aura Snapshot, then begin cataloging and combining Skills in his free time.

  Of course he still had the hard cap of his Affixation slots to consider, but there was no such thing as too many cataloged Skills in his mind.

  The third Skill was one that both excited and concerned him. Loan Skill was something that appeared to have the potential to be absolutely broken. Loaning his diverse set of Skills to an S-ranker like his mother or grandfather appeared to be the best route—assuming their auras were compatible with his Skills.

  What concerned him was the loss of agency. Would he be forever relegated to a Skill battery, loaning out his powers to stronger supers? Of course Silver and his mother had their own powerful skillset with a lot of overlap between his own powers—especially Silver. But wouldn’t it almost always make sense to loan his mother his portal skill, considering her heightened perception and strength?

  The thought of neutering himself to empower someone else—even his own mother—didn’t sit right with him. He’d much rather loan it to Tania to help her achieve her dream of Traveling like her mother.

  He forced those thoughts from his mind, feeling like he would start to spiral if he didn’t.

  Turning to the last set of rewards he had received, he pulled up the available Talent options, smiling as he remembered he had two to allocate instead of one.

  As before, he still had the two baseline options, Condense Aura and Quick Shift. Condense Aura gave him another slot at his rank minus one, while Quick Shift halved his Affixation time. In addition, he still had access to the Mask Signature upgrade, which would make his aura appear like that of a non-Awakened. The upgrade path from Project Aura Signature increased the number of projections to two—not something he felt was necessary.

  But for the first time, he also saw an upgrade available for his very first Talent, Versatile. Versatile allowed him to interchange his Affixation slots at a rate of one slot at a higher rank equaling two slots at the next rank down. He used this extensively to slot all of his D-rank Skills using two E-slots, or occasionally one E-slot and two F-slots.

  The upgrade he saw now though made his eyes bug out in surprise.

  Talent Upgrade: Versatile

  Enhance Versatile such that two Affixation slots at the user’s current rank can be utilized for a Skill one rank higher. At user’s current rank, two C-slots can be used for a single B-slot. This Talent can only be used for a single slot.

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  Prerequisite: Versatile

  Though he didn’t have any B-ranked Skills yet, he knew plenty of people that would be happy to let him copy one or two. And the implication of being able to utilize an A-ranked Skill at B-rank, or an S-rank Skill at the A-rank, was staggering to consider. He didn’t know what would happen when he reached S-rank, but it didn’t matter—this Talent was too good to pass up on.

  With barely a second thought, he took the Versatile upgrade, his aura shifting almost imperceptibly in response.

  That left one Talent point and he considered his remaining options.

  Condense Aura seemed anemic in comparison to the upgraded Versatile, while upgraded Mask Signature appealed slightly more. He also considered Quick Shift, remembering back to the Underworld when he’d been helpless as he’d switched his Affixations. The last option was to upgrade Project Aura Snapshot and if he really used his imagination, he could find some useful circumstances for projecting two versions of his aura to confuse enemies.

  But the truth was, he didn’t feel any of the Talents calling to him. He wasn’t in a rush, so he decided to hold that point in reserve for now.

  With the decision to hold off made, he snapped back into the present, turning his vision from the series of System prompts to the world around him.

  It was the same field that had stretched before the Black Wall before the coalition of supers had torn it down. He could still picture the hundreds of Market refugees milling about as the S-rankers demolished the hulking sore bisecting Topeka.

  As he turned, taking in the sight once more, he spotted a tall piece of smooth granite and what appeared to be a guard house of some sort beside it. On the granite were markings and he strode forward to get a better look.

  It only took him a moment longer to realize it was a memorial. A list of names stretched down the rock face, etched into the stone. At the top, larger text proclaimed this site as a memorial to those lost in the fight against Qui Shen.

  Though he didn’t recognize any of the names from a quick glance, he still felt his heart clench as he counted over one hundred people lost to the fire.

  He couldn’t help but wonder how many of them would be alive now if Dancer hadn’t refused assistance.

  The thought made him angry all over again, dredging up feelings he hadn’t had time to process back in the Underworld.

  He neared the memorial, running his hand down the engravings, when someone cleared his throat beside him.

  “Pardon me, sir…but are you Terrence Fairway?”

  He turned to see a uniformed man exiting the little shack beside the memorial. Terry didn’t recognize the uniform, but it had a definite military flair to it.

  His senses told Terry that the man was an Awakened, but he felt like an F- or E-ranker—not someone who could threaten him if his intentions were violent.

  “Just Terry, but yeah, that’s me.”

  The man’s expression had been sort of bored, a disinterested droop to his eyes. But at hearing the confirmation, the man immediately straightened, his eyes widening in shock.

  “I can’t believe it,” he muttered to himself. Out loud, he added, “Beggin’ your pardon, sir. I have strict orders to inform the Protectorate when you returned.”

  That statement puzzled Terry; he’d never heard of a super outfit called the Protectorate.

  “Who are they?” he asked.

  The guard’s eyes seemed to widen even further, then his mouth opened in realization.

  “I forgot, you’ve been gone on your Midmark.” The man smiled at that, leaning in excitedly like he was passing along some good news. “The Protectorate are the coalition of S-rankers formed after the death of Dancer.”

  Terry felt his heart skip a beat at that. Had the SPC reformed into a new group? Were they hostile to his family?

  “Who’s leading them?” he asked.

  The man’s smile widened. “They don’t have leaders exactly…” He shrugged. “But if I had to choose, I’d say the White Rose is the de facto leader. Most everyone seems to love her, anyway.”

  He felt the tension drain from his shoulders at that, a deep breath escaping his lips.

  “I’ve sent a message to General Terraform—” Terry’s brow arched at that. “—on account of the other members being occupied with the Incursions. General Terraform’s responsible for the Interior, so he’ll be closer.”

  Terry’s mind stuttered over a single word.

  “Wait, hold on…what do you mean, ‘Incursions?’”

  The man’s face shifted through a series of conflicted expressions before settling on a sort of half-cringe.

  “Done did it again,” he said with a soft knock on his forehead. “Keep forgetting you been gone.” The man sighed, shaking his head. “Whole world’s gone batshit. Asia fell in a matter o’ days.” He sighed. “That was just the start. They popped up all over—Japan, South America, Africa—”

  New Quest Given: [Defend Against Incursion Rifts]

  Enter and clear ten rifts at your current rank or higher.

  Reward: Variable

  Bonus Objective: Solo clear a rank-appropriate rift.

  Bonus Reward: Variable

  Incursion rifts…

  That sounded ominous, but before he could press the guard for more information, aura rippled across his senses. It was a deft touch manipulating space, presaging the portal that opened a half-second later.

  Master of Skill Analysis has detected active Skills. Display?

  He ignored the notification, a smile stretching tight across his face as he recognized the two presences passing through the portal.

  When Terraform and Marlon appeared, his smile dropped at the harried looks on their faces.

  Despite the fatigue plainly visible, Terraform smiled upon seeing Terry, while Marlon arched a brow, looking him up and down appraisingly.

  “Terry!” Terraform’s voice was full of an excitement that belayed his apparent exhaustion. “Thank the Systems you’re back!”

  The man strode forward, wrapping Terry in a hug. He returned the embrace, but felt so many questions on his lips.

  When they pulled back, Terry looked between the two men.

  “What’s going on, Terraform? What’s this about Incursions?”

  Marlon glared at the lone guard, who suddenly realized he had something urgent to attend to in his little hut. As for Terraform, his forced smile faltered, a troubled look in his eyes.

  “It’s not good, Terry. Shortly after you left…with the Metaphysical Singularity—” The arch in his brow told Terry he was curious, but he didn’t press the issue. “—all the S-rankers received an addendum to our Become the Omega Quest. The gist of it is: because we assembled the seven Singularities but failed to form the Omega, the Systems gave leave to other worlds to invade our own.”

  Terry’s eyes widened and he took an involuntary step back. The guilt stabbed at his chest and he was forced to remind himself that it had saved an entire world.

  He only hoped he hadn’t inadvertently doomed his own in the process…

  Terraform sensed his warring emotions, sighing heavily. “I won’t presume to understand why you did what you did. I know you aren’t one to covet power for yourself, so I’ll assume your System made the choice for you.”

  Terry opened his mouth to reply, but Terraform held out his hand.

  “Doesn’t matter, Terry. I trust you. The fact that you don’t have it on you concerns me, but what’s done is done.”

  He looked toward Marlon as if to convince the man to echo his sentiment, but Marlon simply scowled in response. Terraform rolled his eyes, turning back to Terry.

  “As far as we can tell, there are multiple Awakened worlds with access to these rifts. They’re rank locked, and for now, there haven’t been any S-grade rifts…”

  Terry felt overwhelmed, his mind struggling to process how quickly things had devolved while he was gone.

  “So…we’re winning, right?”

  For some reason, his brain went right to that question.

  Terraform frowned, glancing over at Marlon.

  “No, boy,” Marlon growled. “We are not winning.”

  He staggered at that, double-taking between the two men. “But if there are no S-rankers coming through…surely my mom and Silver could hold off an army of A-rankers?”

  “So what?” Marlon grunted. “We’ve got a couple o’ walking nukes. But the thing about nukes is, you can’t use ‘em with precision, and certainly not without collateral.”

  Terraform pinched his lips, nodding agreement.

  “And there are dozens of active rifts at any one time. And the forces of at least six worlds that we’ve identified so far.” His face darkened. “Truth is Terry, we’re stretched thin. Rose and Silver are powerful trump cards, but they can’t be everywhere at once. And anywhere they do clash with invading A-rankers…” He trailed off, a far-away look in his eyes.

  Marlon snorted angrily. “Atlanta’s gone.”

  Terry felt a rock settle in his gut.

  “You don’t mean…”

  Terraform nodded sadly. “We evacuated millions…but we lost millions, too.”

  Terry turned away, as if that would stop him from being forced to face the truth.

  “War is hell, son,” Marlon said softly behind him. “And there’s a reason S-rankers shouldn’t fight.”

  He felt his breath catch as he tried to understand the implications of what they were telling him.

  Millions dead…

  “Can we…I don’t know…” He turned back, a desperate feeling welling in his chest. “Can we sue for peace?”

  Marlon scowled behind Terraform, but Terry kept his gaze on the S-ranker. He scanned the man’s face, yearning for some sign of hope in his eyes.

  He didn’t like what he saw.

  “I don’t know, Terry. I truly don’t know. We’re on the back foot, and any student of war will tell you that you don’t negotiate on the back foot. If we’re gonna bring the other worlds to the table, we’ll need to do it on the tail of a real victory.”

  “Or bring the fight to them,” Marlon growled.

  Terry’s gaze cut toward the man. “Is that…is that possible?”

  Terraform looked doubtful, but there was a fire in Marlon’s eyes that drew Terry in.

  “It’s possible, boy.” His voice was quiet, but full of venom. “It’s possible…”

  Terraform interjected. “The problem is that we can only send our own lower ranks as well. Spread across six worlds—at a minimum—wouldn’t accomplish much.” He looked toward Marlon, who furrowed his nose as if in anticipation of what the man was going to say next. “And from what we gather…each of these invading worlds…has their own Omega. We’d be sending our A-rankers into a slaughterhouse. For now, our guidance has been to close the rifts rather than press on to the connecting world.”

  He staggered at that revelation, feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world after only being back for a handful of minutes. Why had the Systems rigged the game against Earth so hard? Was this payback for returning the Metaphysical Singularity to the Underworld, or was there more to this whole thing?

  “Where’s my mother?”

  Terraform nodded as if he’d been expecting the question.

  “She’s currently engaged with the spillover of an A-ranked Incursion over the San Francisco Bay.” Terry felt his heart skip a beat. It was one thing hearing about a battle that was over and done with. It was entirely another to hear she was fighting right now. “She asked me to send you to your father in the meanwhile. He’s in Dallas with Necroton.”

  He tried to send his mother a System message, but just as before when he had tried after Awakening, there seemed to be no connection available.

  “Why can’t she accept System messages?”

  Terraform looked at Marlon who sniffed.

  “She scraped her System off,” the man said casually. “Something I considered but never had the balls to do.”

  Scraped it off…? He knew she had been tortured by her System. Had even taken the drastic step of assisted suicide just to inoculate herself from it. He had never had a chance to ask what had happened after the fact, whether or not she was still Dad’s revenant or…something more.

  “What does that mean?” Terry asked.

  “They’re parasites, boy. Hers was particularly insidious from what she said. Went in like a surgeon and excised the cancer.”

  Terraform frowned at Marlon’s choice of words, quickly adding to the context.

  “She doesn’t have a System anymore, so we can’t message her. We try to have an attache with her at all times to relay important news—”

  Terry latched onto that, interrupting Terraform with a desperate energy. “Who?”

  Terraform bit his lip at the question, causing Terry to narrow his eyes.

  “Who?”

  When Terraform didn’t immediately answer, Marlon interjected.

  “It’s that furry bastard. Revenant of your grandfather.”

  Terry felt his fists clench as he realized who they were referring to.

  “Savage…”

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